WASHINGTON -- One day, getting a flu vaccine may be as pain-free as wearing a Band-Aid. 

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University are working on a new method of vaccine delivery involving microneedles that are so small they can hardly be felt.

The tiny needles, which are attached to a patch, barely penetrate the skin before they dissolve and release their vaccine.

Georgia Tech lead researcher Mark Prausnitz says the business side of the patch feels like fine sandpaper and that in tests of microneedles without vaccine, people rated the discomfort at one-tenth to one-twentieth that of getting a standard injection.

Nearly everyone said it was painless.